Badger football seniors named to major award watch lists

Posted:
Monday, July 8, 2013 7:57 PM EDT

MADISON -- Senior leaders on both sides of the ball represent Wisconsin on preseason watch lists announced Monday for a pair of major awards.

Senior RB James White was named to the watch list for the Maxwell Award, presented annually to the national player of the year, while senior LB Chris Borland is a preseason candidate for the Bednarik Award, which is given to the nation's top defensive player.

Both lists were announced Monday by the Maxwell Football Club.

White enters his senior season as the nation's second-leading rusher among active running backs, owning 2,571 career rushing yards despite making only two starts in his first three seasons at UW. He is the lone active running back in the FBS to boast a career rushing average of better than six yards per carry with his school-record mark of 6.09 yards per attempt.

A 1,000-yard rusher as a freshman in 2010 (1,052), White has nine career 100-yard games to his credit and enters the season ranked 12th in UW history with his 2,571 career yards. He played in all 14 games for Wisconsin last season, rushing for 806 yards -- an average of 6.4 per carry -- and finishing with 12 touchdowns. He ran for 119 yards and scored four touchdowns -- while throwing for another TD -- in UW's 70-31 win over Nebraska in the 2012 Big Ten Football Championship Game.

Borland, featured on the Bednarik watch list for the second-straight season, heads into his final year at UW as a centerpiece of the Badgers' defense. A first-team All-Big Ten pick each of the last two seasons, Borland has proven himself a play-maker as an inside linebacker.

With 13 forced fumbles in his career, he needs just one to match the Big Ten record and all-time FBS best of 14. One of those forced fumbles came in the 2012 Big Ten Football Championship Game, with Borland also posting a season-high 13 tackles as the Badgers secured their third-consecutive conference title. He then led the Badgers with nine stops in the Rose Bowl vs. Stanford.

Borland has 13 sacks and 41.5 tackles for loss -- tied for seventh-best in school history -- to his credit and begins his senior season ranked 19th all-time at UW with 308 total tackles.

The Maxwell Award, named in honor of Robert "Tiny" Maxwell, is in its 77th year. The Bednarik Award, honoring Hall of Famer Chuck Bednarik, will be presented for the 19th time.

White is one of 28 running backs named the Maxwell Award watch list, which includes a total of nine Big Ten players. Borland is one of 10 players to represent the Big Ten on the Bednarik Award watch list.

Notre Dame LB Manti Te'o won both the Maxwell Award and Bednarik Award last season.